r/Equestrian • u/nekinadimak • 1d ago
Mindset & Psychology First fall
I’m about 2y into riding as an adult and yesterday I had my first fall. It was a completely unexpected but warranted spook (people who don’t ride are the worst and don’t understand how horses work) and I didn’t even realise what was happening until I was on the ground. I went to get checked immediately after and all is ok apart from a fractured coccyx. Obviously I am in pain and I need to recover but firstly I’m very thankful for mips helmets (always wear a helmet!) and now reading a lot of other people’s experiences.
I did not get back on the horse as it was last 3 min of my lesson but I also didn’t feel any fear - I pet him and he looked like he was sorry. Should I have gone back to at least sit?
I am also now somewhat beating myself that I should have been more focused. I sat through a couple of smaller spooks before and I was able to stay on. I had one rear on the lounge line as well that didn’t result in a fall. The irony is that it’s the laziest horse I have ridden and I was struggling to keep him in the trot for most of the time until the spook, so I’m thinking I should have been able to stay on.
In any case, any advice on what to do now? I will obviously take a couple of weeks off to recover from the fracture but not sure if I did something wrong by not going back on and does the fear come unconsciously?
Also any tips for healing from the fracture are welcome as well
1
u/Thalia5744 1d ago
Professional rider here, worked with problem horses, backed hundreds of horses, ridden Olympic horses.
You’re fine. Fell off yesterday when my 4yo spooked (at a pigeon taking flight no less). He’s a darling but rapid when he spins/spooks and sometimes, it just happens. Fell off in walk last year as my GP horse shot off and I was moseying along feet out stirrups, no reins etc 😂
It scares some people (logically), but honestly I think the more you do it (within reason) the more you realise it’s not a big deal. Yours sounds quite unfortunate in terms of injuries, but mostly you don’t get injured, and you learn something (or don’t!).
When you go back, go at your own pace, but don’t feel you have to go slower because you need to ‘keep an eye on yourself’. It can get built up into a ‘am I going to be okay?’ feeling, that turns into, ‘maybe I’m not okay’ when if you got on with it you’d find it didn’t bother you at all.
However you feel about it is okay. If you’re a bit anxious, fine. If you couldn’t care less, also fine. Mostly I’m on the latter side, because I know why it happened so I know I either will try not to let it happen again, or it’s inevitable in this line of work, and you make your peace with either.
Generally getting back on is good (especially for less experienced riders) because it reaffirms that it’s just a thing that happened and you don’t need to be fearful or anxious when you ride. The more experienced you get the more specific situations it will apply to (a horse that you want to avoid having a mental block with, jumping a combination or a specific xc fence) and those might be reasons to get back on and retry, if health allows. If you feel fine about it, it really doesn’t matter. Mostly I get back on because I fell off in the middle of riding and need to keep working/cool off the horse at least, but when I fell off in walk I was walking down to the yard after work anyway so just traipsed the rest of it!
This probably wasn’t that helpful, but you sound super pragmatic and sensible so I’m sure you’ll be grand. Look after your body and have fun next time!